At some high schools, fans play a big part in making games fun
At some high schools, fans play a big part in making games fun.
Chris Leon has never played a sport for Maize High.
Yet he has a 2011 Class 6A baseball championship ring, a letter jacket and football jersey with his name on the back.
Leon is the Eagles’ No. 1 fan.
That’s not a self-proclaimed status, either. It’s just what the Maize High community calls Leon, who has Down’s Syndrome.
Leon is proof that avid high school sports fans cannot be stereotyped. Not by age, gender, anything.
No matter the Maize sport, home or away, count on Leon, 20, being there to loudly cheer on the Eagles. After the game, he waits for the boys and girls basketball players so he can bestow hugs and high fives.
“He’s at every single game,” said Maize senior J.C. Sturgeon, who plays basketball and baseball. “He’s at every basketball game, every baseball game. He’s always in a good mood. He’s always excited to see all the players. He’s in the stands yelling louder than everyone.”
Leon’s mother, Pat, started bringing her son to Maize games in 2005, his freshman year.
Leon, who is in his final year of school at Maize — special education students can attend until they are 21 — still waves a red rally towel his mom bought him in 2005.
Over the years, the Maize athletes have looked out for Chris. When his mom dealt with breast cancer, he was terrified. But the football team invited him to postgame dinners, even giving him a jersey.
He calls the players his guys and ladies. And if you ask them, he’s one of them.
“During his freshman year, there was talk of him maybe being a team manager,” Pat said.
“He’s a fan. It clicked in my mind that a fan is a part of the whole picture. There are players and coaches, but a fan, that’s what he can be. That’s his niche.”
Rallying the fans
Before the Kapaun Mount Carmel football game with Bishop Carroll in the fall, Andy Hurtig and several other Kapaun students looked for ways to improve the student section.
“That kind of took off,” Hurtig said. “… We got our feet wet, and then Danny Mitchell, my best friend, we were talking about how fun we could make basketball season if we got going on it before the season even started.”
They asked to move the student section from behind the Kapaun bench to across the basketball court. It’s worked well because they are separate from the parents, are closer to the court and the players can see their antics.
The student section is creative, often mimicking opposing coaches. They spend time on YouTube, trying to find new ideas. They’ll bounce the ideas off friends by posting videos or suggestions on Facebook. Sometimes those ideas are forgotten, others catch on.
They recently did the Parting of the Red Sea with a student dressed as Moses to get them cheering. Then he had them split down the middle and he ran up the bleachers.
Creating a tradition
An active student section at first-year Goddard Eisenhower is a credit to seniors Josh Wallentine and Joey Trotter.
“At the old school, the spirit and tradition started slacking as the years went on,” Trotter said. “This year we got in the mindset, ‘We have one year to make an impression on the school, so lets do it big and right.’ ”
Wallentine agreed.
“Turnout for games has been phenomenal,” he said.
They’ve had theme nights, including a superhero night and hick night. But their best fan interaction activity is when they do the Interlude dance, made popular by Northern Iowa’s students.
South for life
When DeAnn Nelson, a 1995 South grad, goes to the Titans’ basketball games, she sits in the front row, right behind the bench. It’s a perfect spot for Nelson and her two friends, Natalie Aramburu and Chris Hoppman, to encourage the players and berate the officials.
“If we don’t sit in the front row, we’re not happy,” said Nelson, a teacher at Truesdell Middle School. “We want to coach, we want them to hear us, and sometimes we’re not nice to the refs.
“We are involved. We are not there to socialize. We’re there to yell for the kids and sometimes we think we know more than we do.”
Count on seeing the trio at more than basketball games, though. If it’s a South High extracurricular activity, they’re probably there.
“We’re all South alums,” Nelson said. “We feel we’re a part of the tradition of South High. It’s important for us to have them be excited about what they’re doing.”
Entertaining
When Collegiate senior Joey O’Hara was a sophomore, he watched a senior lead the student section in chants.
“It seemed like a fun activity to do,” O’Hara said. “It’s one thing I would be good at, to put myself out there. Junior year, I took the reins.”
He’s implemented plenty of theme nights, including a patriotic theme, formal theme and is planning a Halloween night for the postseason.
His goal is to involve the other students and get them cheering, chanting, yelling. The favorite activity is Tiki Tiki Toomba, during which O’Hara yells chants, the student section repeats them and then they dance.
Derby addict
Peggy Unkel spent 30 years working for the Derby school district, including time as the athletic director’s secretary.
She’s 87, but she attends as many sporting events as possible. Even those on the road because she rides on the cheerleaders’ bus.
“I love sports,” she said. “I try to go to everything I can.”